Malaysia anti-corruption agency arrests another suspect in Pahang Musang King durian orchards probe

The man, in his 60s, is suspected of obtaining and handling money derived from durian cultivation on land with forest reserve status and state-owned land in Pahang.

Sources said he was detained on Tuesday after giving his statement at the MACC branch in the state’s Raub district.

"The suspect is alleged to have committed the offense since 2024 and profited from this illegal activity by hundreds of thousands of ringgit (RM100,000 = US$23,660)," one source told The Star. "This arrest follows the recent arrest of five others over the same case."

Those five, all settlers aged between 40 and 60, were arrested late last month. They were remanded on suspicion of operating illegal durian farms and funneling the proceeds through money laundering schemes between 2024 and 2025, as reported by Free Malaysia Today.

These suspects, including durian farmers and factory workers, are thought to be part of an unlawful trade that spans generations.

Mohd Shukor Mahmud, director of the Pahang MACC, noted that authorities are continuing efforts to identify other suspects and relevant witnesses.

Pahang is one of Malaysia’s major durian-producing states. Raub in particular boasts around 150,000 trees across 2,000 hectares of government land. It is considered the country’s durian capital and the "Musang King Durian Town," per The Straits Times.

Orchards encroaching on state and forest reserve land have been a persistent problem in the state. Earlier this year, Sultan Abdullah Ahmad Shah revealed that nearly 14,500 hectares of government land had been unlawfully occupied to plant crops like oil palm, rubber and durian, the Malay Mail reported.

The recent arrests follow a crackdown on illegal farms that started last year and has since attracted media attention on multiple occasions, including when authorities chopped down more than 1,000 durian trees in Raub, many of the prized Musang King variety, between April and May.

The latest phase of the operation, which began in late July and wrapped up last month, removed all illegal durian plantations from various parts of the state, according to Zainuddin Jamaluddin, director of the Pahang Forestry Department.

"The clearing process was carried out in several phases, involving the cutting down of durian trees only," he said on Tuesday, as quoted by the New Straits Times.

"Herbal plants such as torch ginger and other small plants that did not affect the forest were left untouched."

Another operation, also launched in late July, felled over 3,000 unlawfully planted durian trees across 250 hectares of the Gunung Benum Forest Reserve in Pahang.

The crackdown was carried out in response to a directive from the Sultan, who urged swift action to tackle land encroachment across the state.